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11 Jun

FIXED RATE MORTGAGE PENALTIES:HOW THE BIG BANKS HAVE YOU HOOK, LINE AND SINKER

General

Posted by: Tracy Luciani Price

                                                                      
For most homeowners, figuring out your mortgage penalty can be like solving a Rubik’s Cube. Mortgage penalties see to be written in a language similar to legalese. The sad fact is that you don’t realize how costly it can be to break your mortgage until you have to, are forced to, or if you decide to refinance or sell your property.
Most don’t ever think they will ‘Break’ their mortgage when in fact over half end of doing so during the term. Life happens, changes occur and when they do your mortgage penalty from the banks cannot just be overwhelming, they can be (and usually are) shocking.
Unfortunately the banks play games. They use the ‘Posted’ rate to calculate your penalty when in reality posted rate has nothing to do with your mortgage. This allows them to get more money from you. For this very reason most bank penalties anymore are IRD’s or interest rate differential and not simply a 3 month interest penalty.
Please do not be fooled on any long term ‘Relationship’ or perceived comfort you may feel you have with your bank because any value from it simply does not exist anymore. The Banks want you to choose a fixed rate over variable so they can nail you with a huge penalty if you have to break your mortgage. You see, you can only be charged a maximum of 3 months interest on a variable mortgage so please do not fall into the trap they have set for you.
You may feel more comfortable choosing a fixed rate with fixed payments and in dealing with a local branch versus a mortgage broker, but it will end up costing you a bundle for such misplaced trust. The problem is in doing so you do not receive professional advice and counsel we provide in your best interests.
Don’t get me wrong, we are not advocating fixed versus variable, it’s just that you may not be aware of several other important benefits of going variable. We also want you to know that any penalty from a mortgage we arrange for you is not only fully spelled out to you, but we will show you that our penalties are much much lower than any of the banks’ penalties which are sometimes triple and therefore very punitive.
Folks experts in our industry are starting to speak out to expose such practices and recently have even stated that bank mortgage penalties are “Bordering on Fraud”. Yes it’s that serious.
Please do not leave yourself exposed to such a potential negative consequence. Look out for the fine print or better yet call us first for your next mortgage need.
We are your WATCHDOG when it comes to mortgages.